Jasper port feasibility proved many years ago

When I read your Oct. 19 editorial on the Jasper port, I thought I must have picked up a 20-year-old paper. The feasibility has been studied since at least 1968. Don't forget we had private funding long before the project was turned over to the two entities most opposed to building it.

The road projects discussed were just that -- discussed. They are desirable, but not necessary.

As to the economic downturn, that too is a stall tactic. We have years of permitting yet to do before the first yard of concrete gets poured. We then have a year or two of construction time. If we start today, we might be done just in time to take up the excess from Charleston and Savannah. If the economy has not recovered by the time we could load the first ship, we will be in so much other trouble that excess port capacity will be a trivial problem.

You allude to environmental costs. Jasper was long ago identified as a more environmentally friendly location than either Charleston or Savannah. The site was destroyed, environmentally, generations ago. Our site is covered by approximately 32 feet of dredge spoil. Our site is 16 miles closer to the ocean.

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Finally, when did the newspaper buy into the false and unjust premise that Jasper shouldn't have a port until both Charleston and Savannah have run out of capacity? Please update your facts by 10 or 15 years, and your opinion will update itself.